Do Not Pay list lacks data as implementation nears

Jason Miller, executive editor, Federal News Radio

In three weeks, agencies will not be able to cut a check to a contractor or send
money to most citizens without first checking the Do Not Pay portal.

But the Do Not Pay website is missing important data, which would help agencies
guard against making an improper payment.

The Treasury Department, which runs the Do Not Pay portal, by law can't access the
full Death Master File that is run by the Social Security Administration.

Richard Gregg, fiscal assistant secretary, Treasury Department

The Death Master File contains more than 86 million entries from SSA payment
records. This file includes information on each decedent. The data available to
the SSA would include the Social Security number, name, date of birth and date of
death.

"Treasury's long-term vision is to have our Do Not Pay business center and data
analytics service to be a robust, timely and flexible service for agencies to use
in identifying and preventing waste, fraud and abuse," said Richard Gregg,
Treasury's fiscal assistant secretary Wednesday. "To
fully achieve this vision, Treasury will work to both improve the quality and the
availability of data as well as strengthen our analytics capability. The key issue
for Do Not Pay is access to data."

And it's not just the Death Master File that Treasury doesn't have access to.
Gregg said the prisoner database and the National Directory of New Hires also
isn't included in the Do Not Pay list.

Other data sharing challenges

In other cases, Treasury can obtain access to other data sources through computer
matching agreements. Gregg said that is not the preferred approach.

"I think steps were taken in Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Act to
help with computer matching. If further refinement could make that even easier,
that would streamline the process," Gregg said. "Having gone through it numerous
times, it's onerous to get the agreements and even though there are some deadlines
set in that, further improvements would help."

The data issue is so challenging that even agency inspectors general want an
exception from the data matching law.

Danny Werfel, the Office of Management and Budget's controller, said some of the
current laws are so onerous that the government sometimes looks to the private
sector for information first because it's easier to obtain the data it needs as
opposed to going to the government source.

President Barack Obama required the development of the Do Not Pay portal in a 2010 memo. OMB
reinforced the importance of the Do Not Pay list in 2012 with a second memo that required agency chief
financial officers to develop a plan to implement the tool.

More support from Congress

The lack of access to key databases is not a new problem. Werfel and other agency
leaders have asked Congress for help before. During a 2012 hearing before the
Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs subcommittee, Werfel called for
access to the Master Death File as well as the need to change the computer
matching programs provisions in the 1988 amendments to the Privacy Act of 1974.

The difference this time before the full committee is lawmakers are promising to
change the law.

Sens. Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), chairman and ranking member of
the committee, respectively, said they'd seriously consider the administration's
proposals to access data and make it easier for agencies to stop and recover
improper payments.

"I have directed my staff to take the recommendations from the budget and as fast
as possible get that into legislative language," said Coburn said. "We will find a
broad range of bipartisan support for actually making these changes."

Coburn said he wants to hear from the agencies on how to reduce the complexity of
sharing information. Currently, SSA works with the Commerce Department to make a
lesser version of the Death Master File available to a broader audience.

"This shouldn't have to go from you to Commerce; Commerce to National Technical
Information Service, and NITS to everyone else," Coburn said. "It ought to be here
is what it costs. If there is a charge, it ought to go straight to Social Security
and go to all the rest of them so we clean up the steps in terms of getting this
information available."

Striking the right balance

The 2014 budget request included several proposals, including moving funding for
the Department of Health and Human Services and SSA to address improper payments
from the discretionary to the mandatory side.

Danny Werfel, controller, Office of Management and Budget

"We believe and I believe we've demonstrated that these investments have a
positive return on investment. It's something like $10 to $1 on the SSA front,"
Werfel said. "Why can't we get those activities funded to the right level is
something we have to look into the mirror on and figure out what we can do to get
this enacted."
Another proposal is to extend access to the Master Death File.

"We've worked hard to strike a balance here because we want to make sure federal
agencies have access to this data to prevent improper payments via the Do Not Pay
list and we also want to make sure law enforcement has access to the data," said
Marianna LaCanfora, the acting deputy commissioner for retirement and disability
policy at SSA. "Through this proposal, we want to expand federal agency access,
but at the same time, we're also delaying the release of the public Death Master
File for three years because there are criminals out there using that data to
commit tax fraud. We want to prevent that."

She said six agencies have access to the full master death file, including HHS,
the Centers for Medicaid and Medicaid Services and the Defense Department. SSA
also is in discussions with two agencies more to begin paying for data.

Under the law, SSA is required to charge for the data. LaCanfora said agencies pay
anywhere from $9,000 to $45,000 a year depending on the amount of data they are
receiving and whether the customer agency is providing SSA any data in return.

The Death Master File is far from perfect.

The Government Accountability Office is in the middle of a study and found records
of 1,300 people where the listed age of beneficiaries of death was between 111-
years old and 129-years old. Additionally, GAO found records of 1,800 people who
had Social Security numbers but died prior to the year SSNs came into existence.

Growing list of users

Even without access to the Master Death File, agencies are using the Do Not Pay
portal.

Treasury's Gregg said 36 agencies and nine states that administer federal funds
are taking advantage not only of the data but also of the analytical services.

The portal does include information from a host of databases including debarred
contractors, individuals who owe child support or non-tax debt and other sources.

Gregg said data is important, but it's also about how data is used.

"Treasury also is working to improve its data analytics service. Improving data
quality will provide agencies with reliable results and minimize false positives,"
Gregg said. "In the long term, Treasury is working to develop a forward looking,
continuous monitoring fraud identification tool. Treasury also will enhance Do Not
Pay to provide a feedback loop so that agencies can improve their own data,
basically a continuous learning process."